§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all the instances known to his Department of damage caused by acid deposition.
§ Mr. WaldegraveAcid deposition can damage both the natural and the urban environment, but it is not the sole cause of environmental acidification and the damage it causes cannot readily be distinguished from other forms of damage. It is therefore difficult to establish the extent to which deposition at current concentrations contribute to damage. As I said in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, West (Lord James Douglas-Hamilton) on 11 March, at column13 my Department has a substantial programme of monitoring and research and I expect reports within the next 18 months which should help in defining the scale of the problem and in elucidating its causes.